Recently, I visited the optometrist for my yearly eye exam
and to obtain new eyeglasses and contact lenses. When the good doctor came to
fetch me from the waiting room, he said, "come on back, young lady," but
glancing from me to the information listed on my chart, he quipped, "ooh,
you're no young lady." (I come from a long line of Southern women who taught me
how to grind my teeth and kill such socially inept creatures with
kindness.)

A
few weeks later, I elected to take a telephone survey about political
candidates, and when the survey
reached the demographic portion of the inquiry,
I waited, rather impatiently, for my age group to be announced. When did I get
so far down the list?

As I creep ever nearer to my 40s, I'm assessing the options
available to me that will somehow preserve the
fountain of youth—because as the
great Dolly Parton warned in the popular 1990s film "Steel Magnolias," "Time
marches on, and sooner or later, you
realize it is marchin' across your face."
I'm educated enough to know that no lotion or potion is going to rewind my
physical clock, but if there is
anything I can do to protect and preserve,
there's no harm in that, right?

Well, it looks like a bevy of rather
creative skin care
manufacturers seem to think so. A quick look around the "anti-aging" skin-care
market yields dozens of creams, serums, masks and
other products that claim to
turn back the hands of time—via the use of stem cells.

The marketing tactics
employed
by the "laboratories" responsible for these dermatological wonders are
deliberately vague in describing how the products employ stem cells to erase
wrinkles, reduce redness, fade age spots and lift sagging skin. They seem to
rely on the public's misconception that stem cells are Mother Nature's
miracle,
with the power to do everything from eradicate disease to give people a
surgery-free facelift. These messages are aimed at the same people who
believe
"media reports" that Pepsi is using "aborted
baby cells" in drink research.

Those of us who are a bit more informed about the science
and potential of stem
cells, however, are able to sort fact from fiction.
Skincare companies are not using human embryonic stem cells; the last time I
checked, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration hadn't approved any process by
which
live materials are somehow incorporated into consumer-grade dermatology
products. At best, these companies are creating products with plant stem cells,
specialized peptides or enzymes that reportedly help protect human skin stem
cells from damage and deterioration, or perhaps stimulate the skin's own
stem
cells.

The great divide between actual science and general public
perception—complicated by political
controversy and ethical debate—has only
grown deeper with every breakthrough or achievement in the quest to use stem
cells to regenerate or repair
damaged tissue, skin and organs. Worse yet, such
controversies have significantly slowed scientific and commercial progress, as
noted by our features
editor, Randall C. Willis, in the second part of our series
on trends in stem cell research,
"Regenerating interest in stem cell medicine,"
a feature report that begins on page 32 of this month's issue.

"When the idea of embryonic stem cells first came up about
three decades ago, conversations ran rampant about the
potential—pluripotential, if
you will—of this technology to cure all human
disease and assist us with replacement organs and tissues as those in our aging
bodies failed over time.
Despite a few early achievements, however, the hype
quickly trailed off to be replaced by disappointment and anxiety," Willis
writes.

However, he also notes, "While not necessarily abandoning the desire to
outright replace damaged tissues—and perhaps, one
day, organs via tissue
engineering—stem cell companies have tamped down earlier rhetoric on being
'the' solution for human disease."

That'll be the first step in normalizing public expectations
for stem cell therapies. Then, conversations between companies,
regulators and
payors must begin, with those of us entrusted with reporting on these
developments doing so in a more responsible and approachable way.

Here's hoping that the scientific community uses the growing
"stem cell skin care" market as an opportunity to
educate the general public
about the actual science and promise of stem cells. Until then, I guess I'll
just slather on some sunblock and embrace the
next phase of my life, wrinkles
and all.